The Place Promised In Our Early Days is Coming

A little over a year ago, I was raving about a little anime title called Voices of a Distant Star. The 30-minute film has gone on to garner quite a bit of praise, and it’s all well-deserved. It has a bittersweet and beautifully-told storyline, and the artwork is quite gorgeous as well. And making it all the more impressive is the fact that it was done by one man, Makoto Shinkai, using nothing more than his Mac.

In the past year or so, Voices… has become quite the hit, and not suprisingly, a lot of people are excited for his follow-up, Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho, aka The Place Promised In Our Early Days. Until only recently, Shinkai had released just a handful tantalizing details, including a brief plot summary and a gorgeous teaser/trailer. However, the film’s official website just went live, featuring a synopsis, character info, and two new trailers (the first one having been edited by Shinkai himself).

Naturally, the entire site’s in Japanese (though I assume a translation will soon be appearing on this excellent Shinkai fansite). However, it’s still possible to appreciate the simple beauty in the trailers. From the looks of things, Shinkai has really built on the style he displayed in Voices…, and some of the shots in the trailer are absolutely spellbinding (at the risk of sounding sacreligious, I daresay the man’s ability to draw gorgeous skies rivals that of Hayao Miyazaki’s).

The film’s release date hasn’t been set yet, but it’ll most likely be sometime in October or November. Which means we won’t be seeing it for several more months after that. Sigh…